The Knights have won 28 straight games entering Saturday's Class 5A Division II state championship game against Spring Dekaney.

Rutledge is the only area coach who has guided a streak like that.

He led Judson to a 30-game unbeaten streak from 1992-94 and a 28-game winning streak in 1988 and '89 with Jinks at quarterback. He knows firsthand the difficulty in maintaining such a string.

There are few things, he said, less predictable than the mental state of a teenager, making it a minor miracle to get a team of teenagers to perform every week without fail.The first thing Jinks and Rutledge point to is the strength and stability of their coaching staffs.

When Jinks was a young assistant coach, he wondered why Judson's Jim Rackley and Pete Gibbens would stay for years and years as assistants, even though they could have had head-coaching opportunities earlier.

“Now I know,” Jinks said. “When you're part of a special run, you hope it never ends.”

Eight of Steele's 10 assistant coaches have been there since the beginning, when the school opened in 2005.

Jinks named five assistants who easily could become head coaches elsewhere.

Offensive coordinator Scott Lehnhoff is one of them, and he cited the continuity as a main reason to stay. Compared to the relationship Steele's coaching staff has, Lehnhoff said they might not be so fortunate somewhere else.

There were plenty of offers to Judson's coaches from other schools during its run.

Including at least one to Rutledge.

In the mid-1990s, shortly after the 30-game winning streak, Texas A&M called Rutledge to coach its tight ends.

Rutledge said it was an opportunity he considered for a while, but he couldn't leave Judson.

Could the dream job opportunity be out there for Jinks?

After Chad Morris won two state championships at Lake Travis in 2008 and 2009, he moved on to colleges. As Clemson's offensive coordinator, he signed a contract extension this week that's worth $1.3 million a year.

Todd Graham was 36 when he left Allen to become an assistant at West Virginia in 2001. He was named Arizona State's head coach on Wednesday, his fourth college head-coaching position since 2006.

Jinks, 39, turned down an offer last year to become head coach at his alma mater Angelo State.

He's already considered as one of the top young coaches in the state. If he adds another state championship, his résumé would top almost any high school coach under 40.

Jinks isn't thinking about it.

He knows he's part of something special that the area hasn't seen since Rutledge was guiding Judson's glory days.

Steele fans will worry about Jinks' next destination every offseason, and it might not be long before there's an offer he can't pass up.

If they can take comfort in anything, it might be that Jinks is cut from the same cloth as Rutledge.